


Gifted

by ipickandchoose



Category: Warehouse 13
Genre: High School AU, Multi, Teens, mentions of past and current abuse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-10
Updated: 2015-04-29
Packaged: 2018-03-22 04:33:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 12,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3715162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ipickandchoose/pseuds/ipickandchoose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Claudia Donovan has been jumped from home to home before staying with the Sykes' in Univille, South Dakota. She finally finds a home in the gifted group at the local high school, Univille High, while trying to discover what really happened to her brother when he disappeared 7 years ago.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

They all stared as she walked in, that always happened though, wearing a leather jacket covered in buttons, a pair of jeans so torn and faded there was no way to tell if it was intentional or just due to wear and a pair of black boots covered in buckles making it to near her knees tended to draw attention, turning up three days into the school year didn't help too much either. The one good thing she did have going for her though was that people moved to let her past, no one was sure how to react to her but instead got out of her way just incase, between her clothes and hair that she had clearly cut herself with a bright blue streak contrasting the red of the rest of it she could have easily passed as living on the streets or being in a gang. 

Claudia hated first days, but she had been through more than most, what was this now 22, no 23 one for each home except one, she hadn't even stayed there long enough to get through the summer holidays. With people parting to get out of her way it only took her a few minutes to find the office. 

“Claudia Donovan, I’m here to get my timetable and whatsnot” she said as she walked up to the desk, the woman seemed taken back, though Claudia wasn’t sure if it was her forwardness or just her appearance, most adults didn't really approve of it, not that there were any adults in her life who's opinions mattered enough to stop her. 

“Here you go, homeroom is down the hall first door on the right,” the secretary informed her while handing over a map of the school along with her time table, “are you okay to head down there by yourself?”

“I’ll be fine.” She replied already heading back the way she came in easily finding the classroom. She walked straight in, seeing the rest of the class already sitting in there. Seeing a seat in a back corner she immediately started to walk towards it. 

“Okay we have a new student, Claudia…” Started the teacher seeing her come in but hesitated as she walked straight past him towards the class, “Donovan, is there anything you wish to say to the class Miss Donovan?” he continued half hesitantly half angered by her rudeness. Taking her seat she turned to look at the older man stood at the front of the class now angrily glaring at her, he was taller than her, though not by much and had the sort of look that would work well on a mad scientist. 

“Nope, that it Gramps?” She replied earning a snigger from the rest of the class.

“That is all Miss Donovan, and you would do well to refer to me as Mr Nielsen from now on,” he answered with a strained voice unused to seeing this kind of attitude from any student let alone a Freshman. He became even more shocked to see she had already lost all interest in him and was puling out a laptop that appeared to have been made from spare parts by her, it would be a miracle if she could even turn on that thing let alone use it, he thought. 

She however, booting it up, was well aware that it could not only run but easily out compete any of the other machines in the school. That was the advantage of building your own computer, no limitations beyond what you could code, and she could beat them all. She started by gaining access to the school network, she didn't really need it at the moment but after the last school she would rather have it now than need it later and not have the time needed. It took her what was left of home room to get full access, someone had clearly upgraded the software on the systems far beyond what should have been there. Even with the full access she had given herself though there was still an area she couldn't get into, she couldn't even tell what it was it was so heavily encrypted, that hadn't happened since she had tried to get into the government, she was still working on that one too. But just its presence was enough to intrigue her, perhaps she might have to stick around to find out why any school would need NSA grade encryption. She was so consumed by her thoughts that she didn't notice she had no idea where she was supposed to be going until she had no idea where she was. Okay maybe I should have actually looked at the map and timetable during study hall, she thought to herself as she tried to find a landmark she could use on the map. Eventually getting to biology only five minutes late she tried to slip in quietly and head to the back bench where there was still an empty desk remaining only to stop as she herd the teacher talk directly to her. 

“Who might you be and why are you late?” The teacher asked as Claudia turned slowly to face her. 

“Claudia Donovan and honestly I was taking advantage of every second I didn't have to spend in a stuffy old classroom with a teacher like you.” She answered cockily gaining the attention of the entire class and watching as all their jaws dropped simultaneously with great amusement. 

“Well then Claudia I guess you are going to get to enjoy it even more on your way to the principals office. Go. Now.” the teacher replied almost shaking with anger at the student she didn't recognise. 

“Alright then. Well this was fun, later bitches.” She called while walking back out of the door, stopping just before leaving to turn and give the vulcan salute as a wave to the other students. Then she head back to the main office where she had been less than 2 hours earlier.

* * *

“It took you less than two hours to be sent here. You have been at this school less than two hours. When I pulled up your file this morning I knew you would be trouble, I still haven't finished it, over 200 pages of reports, detentions, suspensions, even an expulsion which I suspect only happened once since the other times you were moved first. You have reports from every one of the schools you have been to, all 21,” the principal ranted.

“22, 23 including this one,” She corrected, if she was going to hear this speech again and again could people at least get the facts right.

“Do not interrupt I don't care if it’s 21, 22, it could be 40 for all I care, we accepted you for two reasons, the first is that we have a good record with problem students, we can and will turn you around, and two, the bigger reason, is that we are the only high school in Univille, the only high school in over 40 miles and the Sykes are a good family, have done a lot for the school. So since it is your first day I think we will just go with one week of detention, but take into account I am going easy on you, so keep your attitude in check before you are back here with a much worse punishment.” Mr Valda continued while opening the door for her to leave, “Detention starts at 3 in the main hall, don't be late for that too young lady.” Claudia threw her bag over her shoulder and sauntered out of the office towards the only class she was actually looking forward to, computer science, silently hoping the teacher was proficient enough to at least teach her something. 

 


	2. Chapter 2

Well that class had been a disappointment, the one class she had actually wanted to attend since she was nine and it was barely worth turning up to, the teacher could barely tell the difference between a computer and rock. She could already code fluently in 7 separate languages and was in the process of writing her own which was much more efficient. However it did pose her with a question, who upgraded the school software because it clearly wasn’t him. The only good that came out of the lesson though was the ports that he’d allowed her to plug her laptop into, after she’d convinced him it wasn’t just going to blow up in all of their faces, had allowed her much easier access into the school system and probably the key to accessing the dark vault, as she’d taken to thinking of the unknown data as. 

The last two lessons of the morning were pretty uneventful, she arrived on time and sat in the back corners of both lessons with the teachers only giving her a funny look as she pulled out her laptop once she had bored of the subject being taught. She knew though that from now on the teachers would be giving her a wide birth, they’d had time to all meet together and discuss the terror that is her, it happened every time, every school. She didn't mind it though, they left her alone to get on with her own thing and that’s all she wanted. Finding a nice spot outside the school, with good wifi connection of course, thanks teacher who argued that they should have wifi so they could use laptops and iPads, she pulled out her lunch she had made back at the Sykes’, she didn't have the money to buy lunch and it was much easier to nick food from them, peanut butter and nutella sandwich and an apple she’d stolen off a tree she passed on the walk to school. Not much but she had gone up to a week before with no food, that was a bad home, so she didn't need much to get by. The Sykes’ were better than many of her previous homes, reasonably nice house, got her into the school pretty quick and fed her decently at home, but she knew they only took her in to get the extra money to help out with their own son Walter, who was stuck in a wheel chair and had large medical bills. 

* * *

The final two lessons passed exactly as she expected, teachers tried so had to ignore her it became obvious, drawing more attention to her from the other students, which honestly is quite impressive after I already broke the record for shortest amount of time before getting called to the principals office, she though. Claudia was actually quite proud of that fact she had heard being whispered as she passed on her way here. But no matter how proud she was of the fact it was the reason she was headed down to the main hall at three rather than home. Walking in there was only one other student present along with the teacher. 

“At least I made it through 3 days, though from what I hear you broke my record, well played.” The boy spoke loudly his voice easily making it across the room to her, “How long did you get for that little display?”

“One week, but it works to my advantage. I was surprised though with what I got away with in home room, guess he let me off thanks to the _awesome_ new kid status. What about you then, what you in for?” She quipped back looking over the room, the boy was sat on the bleachers at the side while the woman was stood clearly waiting for them to finish. 

“Apparently using a teachers computer to send emails to other members of staff is highly frowned upon, I only convinced them to bring in loads of cupcakes though, didn't get to eat any as planned. Oh I’m Todd by the way.” He came back with standing as Claudia reached him from across the hall. 

“I’m…” She began to reply before being cut off by his hand.

“Claudia Donovan, new girl, walked into a class five minutes late got sent out 30 seconds later.” he stated continuing after seeing the confused look she wore, “Small town, everybody knows everybody, also you look very distinctive no one else around here fits the description of, and I quote “I don't know if she's in a gang or was just picked up off the streets but you get the fuck out of her way.” don't blame me, that’s just what I heard, though I would have gone more with punk rock biker chick to be honest.”

“Okay now we have all made introductions I am Mrs Lattimer and you two are the only ones to have managed to get detention quite this early on.” The woman spoke while moving towards them, “Todd I was hoping that you could have made it at least a week before I saw you here and Miss Donovan, you I was hoping to not see for some time but I guess people don't often get what the want. Well come with me, Todd you know the drill.” Mrs Lattimer began to walk towards the door while Todd followed, it took Claudia a second to realise what was happening before quickly walking after them and outside. “Now it hasn't been done all summer so lots to do, Todd show Claudia what to do and don't forget to wear gloves, you know what happened last time.”  Todd started to head towards a shed while Mrs Lattimer sat on a bench next to a large flower bed. 

“Come on, trust me you want to be wearing gloves for this,” called Todd over his shoulder and Claudia chased after him quickly catching up just as he entered the shed and threw a pair of thick, but small, gardening gloves to her. 

“So are we gardening or something?” She asked while putting on the gloves and following him back out of the shed. 

“The school only uses the grounds staff for areas like the football fields, to keep the rest of the place looking nice they use poor saps like us.” as he spoke he knelt down next to the flower bed and began pulling up weeds, looking up and sensing her hesitation he patted the ground beside him, “Haven’t you ever done work in a garden before?” he asked watching as she shook her head, “Alright then, it’s simple pull out the weeds, trying to bring up all the roots too, and place them in a pile. Don't pull up the flowers. Wear gloves, thistles are sharp, and accept you will get muddy. Any questions? Nope, you seem smart you'll figure the rest out.” Still puling up weeds as he spoke. Claudia got down onto her knees and joined him pulling out the weeds, making little competitions, who could find the biggest weed, who could get the most out in 30 seconds. Before she knew it Mrs Lattimer was stood above them telling them the hour was up and they could head home. 

* * *

After Todd had headed off Claudia looked around, she could head home but there wasn’t really anything for her there, the only thing she missed about her previous home was that they had a couple of guitars and so long as she didn't break them she had been allowed to play them. Maybe tomorrow she would look and see if there was anywhere in town she could get one cheap, she probably wouldn't though, it was hard enough to keep hold of the stuff in her duffle bag moving a guitar for house to house would be near impossible. In the end she decided to explore the town, however small it might be. Only after walking for five minutes did she truly understand that there was nothing in a town this small, other than stores for basic necessities there was very little else, she guessed that most people ordered from the internet or went for very long day trips to get anything. She did however find a dinner and, after checking her pockets where she found the five dollars she had swiped off a teachers desk earlier, went in to and ordered a milkshake and some chilli, extra onions. She sat there for over 2 hours slowly making her way through the food and noticing the lack of people sat near her at the counter, that was until Mr Nielsen from her homeroom earlier took the seat next to her. It took him a second to acknowledge her presence before he turned and asked. 

“That computer you were using yesterday, did you make it?”

“About a year ago, why?” She replied unsure to his motives.

“And it works? Turns on and is fully functional?” He continued. 

“Turns on and works better than any of the computers at the school at least.” Before she could ask why he was asking a takeaway box was placed in front of him which he quickly picked up before walking off. 

After she had finished her chilli she head home, moving through the house as quietly as she could reaching her room unnoticed and pulling out her laptop; she started to look up Nielsen hoping to find out what his interest was. Little did she know on the other side of town Arthur Nielsen was doing a little digging on her.  

 


	3. Chapter 3

The next week was pretty uneventful, Claudia went to detention each afternoon where her and Todd did as little as they could get away with and she sat through lessons spending most of her time trying to brake the encryption. Most teachers just left her alone, she had learnt that once you embarrass a few in front of their classes the rest would completely avoid you. However that changed on Monday during home room. 

“Miss Donovan I would like to see you after school in the library today.” Mr Nielsen told her quietly to not attract the attention of the other students, walking off before she could even reply. 

* * *

After a day of worrying and desperately trying to figure out what the hell Mr Nielsen, or as she had discovered over the weekend Mr Weisfelt, wanted with her. He hadn't even spoken to her since that evening in the dinner. Walking into the library though she was relieved to see other students already there, two girls, one tall with long out of control hair, the other shorter with much curlier but tame hair and one boy. 

“Do any of you guys know why we’re all here?” Claudia asked interrupting the conversation they were having.

“Of course we do,” started the taller of the girls turning to face her, “Wait you’re the new kid. Artie you didn't say she was the new kid, she broke the record for the time taken to be sent to the principals office. No I can’t be with her. This is for the gifted not those gifted at trouble making.” She called out storming further into the library. 

“Don’t worry about her she just a little stressed, I can see you’re a good person. I’m Leena, that was Myka and this is Pete.” Said the smaller one moving towards her and looking her over after Claudia had backed away slightly. 

“Awesome, well clearly I shouldn't be here though. The other girl, Myka, you said? Well she said this was for gifted people and I’m really not that so I’ll just be off then.” She said turning back to leave the way she came in before stopping suddenly as she almost walked straight in to a large brown mass. 

“And where do you think you’re going Miss Donovan?” Asked Mr Nielsen becoming recognisable as she took a step backwards. 

“Home, I’m finally done with detention and clearly not meant to be here so I’m leaving school at a reasonable time for once.” She replied whilst side stepping to try and move around him only to find him doing the same to stop her. 

“Miss Donovan pull out your laptop,” Mr Nielsen requested continuing to block her path, “As I am sure it is you who has been trying to gain access to the files this past week, good job on that by the way, at the rate you’re going you would have been in in ten more days.”

“Dude I would have been in in five.” Claudia quipped back moving towards the desk while opening her bag, “So that’s your encryption then, when did Mr Weisfelt learn coding like that?” she asked, placing the computer on the table. 

“Ah I thought you might find that one, and yes, well partly, I had a few friends lend a hand. Though you. You nearly made it through over a years work of some of NSA top coders in a week.” He spoke fast while starting to type on the computer, “Interesting, you said you made this yourself?”

“Yep about a year ago like I told you at the dinner. Why?” Claudia tried to look over his shoulder to see exactly what he was doing, if he broke it she would kill him. 

“Made of spare parts, computer scraps. This bit doesn't even belong to a computer. Toaster? He asked while picking it up and looking it over. 

“Careful with it! And yes what I could find, there’s computer, toaster, microwave, anything I could salvage. I didn't really have any money to pay for parts.”

“Of course. Of course. You coded it too, hmm.” He turned to look at her, “If I gave you access to proper resources, what do you think you could do then.”

She paused to think for a moment before replying, “Finally build a computer that could do all I needed.”

“And what is it you need to do that this one cannot?” He asked inquisitively. 

“That…” She paused for a moment, “Is not important right now, what is is was that an offer?”

“Come here every afternoon this week and maybe,” he pointed his finger at her, “Just maybe it will be. For now though here’s yours back.” handing over the laptop he continued, “You were right though, it easily outcompetes anything commercially available. You said it would take you five days to get in right?”

“Yeah.”

“Alright, well then you better get to it. There’s a connection point over there if you need.” He pointed over to a table near a wall.

“What is this group anyways?” Claudia asked already on her way over there. 

“See if you can find out.” He said mysteriously, “Myka get back here.” he yelled out just a second later. 

* * *

Sitting down with her computer she looked over her shoulder to see the other three all around a table facing towards a white board Mr Nielsen was writing on. The two girls were paying attention while Pete appeared to be trying to draw their attention away with a display of how many cookies he could fit into his mouth at once. Facing back to the computer she continued trying to find a weakness in the code. Maybe just going at by brute force would work she thought. 

She was there for nearly two hours before she noticed the others getting ready to leave, Pete slung his arm around Myka’s shoulder seconds before she shrugged it off, the two of them leaving together, while Leena stayed behind to talk to Mr Nielsen. 

“Alright then, I’m off later Mr Nielsen slash Weisfelt.”

“Stick with Nielsen Claudia, and here I’m just Artie.”

Leena started to walk towards Claudia, “Hey I’ll come with you.” she said falling into step with her. 

“Arn’t you afraid my attitude or some shit will rub off on you?” Claudia asked sarcastically, most people avoided her, she didn't fit in anywhere are generally tried to avoid making friends, what was the point when you left a few months later. 

“No, and anyways I can see you, the real you. That’s someone worth being around.” Leena turned to look at her while Claudia stood confused. “I have to go, my lift’s here.” Leena headed to a car in the parking lot, one of very few still there. 

Claudia slowly walked home thinking about what Leena said, still not understanding what she meant. The real me, what the hell is that supposed to mean, she though letting herself in to the house and thanking God that no one else was home. Grabbing some left overs from the fridge she headed straight to her room, it wasn’t really a bedroom though more an office with a mattress on the floor. The Sykes’ really didn't have much space for her with everything having to be specially designed for Walter wheelchair. Claudia didn't mind too much though, the office had the wifi router and so the best signal. Setting herself up on her computer she ate the cold lasagne while continuing trying to access the dark vault, she was almost certain it had something to do with the gifted group though she had no clue why, she didn't even really understand what the group was at the moment. 

She kept going to the after school group, watching the three interact with jealousy and continued trying to crack the encryption. She was always in the corner away from the others but she saw the looks she got from them, Pete and Leena looked intrigued, Pete had even come over and asked how she was doing on the third day, while Myka looked at her as if she was a bomb ready to explode at any second. She didn't really help herself though, she continued to talk back to teachers, spent lessons on her laptop and sat alone at lunch and break. But in the end it was worth it because just as she had predicted five days later she was staring at the now readable files. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's moving reasonably fast until I can get to a point where the story becomes more interesting. Also this is one of the longest pieces of writing I have done so I would love some input or even just things I need to go back and fix.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I own no characters and simply am using them as puppets for my own amusement

Claudia had never hated herself so much for being right, she had taken the five days she said she would but that now left the weekend in front of her and more questions than could possibly be answered. She didn't know what to do with herself but she did know she needed to get out the house and stop reading the file, so she went out into the town. Spotting the ice-cream shop she checked her pocket for any change she might have left in there already knowing there would be none. With nothing to do she continued walking to find a small coffee shop with a sign in the window announcing open mike night every Wednesday and Sunday. She was about to just give up on finding anything to do, she spotted a large pile of scrap sitting outside the hardware store, she may not be able to afford anything inside but no one would care about this she though picking through the pile for usable pieces. 

She found a small field, okay she though maybe it wasn’t a field, those involve actual grass but it was still a space where no one would give a crap about her being in, she needed to be left alone if she was to make what she wanted. Carefully drawing in the sand with a stick she began to create a set of blueprints using the components she had recovered. After an hour she not only had a new gadget but a bracelet she put together from what had been left over. Removing the blueprints with a couple of quick kicks she began to head back, aware of the sun slowly setting in front of her and the hunger from not having eaten all day. 

* * *

Sunday, that was what the poster said, checking on the website she found that the open mike night started at 6 that afternoon. She would head there and maybe if she was lucky they would have a guitar lying around she could play. After stealing an apple from the kitchen, hey they had to at least provide her with the ability to get food if they wanted to keep getting the cheques, she realised that after yesterday she had completely wiped out all possibilities of entertainment in this town so sat down with her laptop to continue with the new coding, next time it wouldn't take her even half as long to get into such strong encryption. 

Running into the coffee shop at 6:30 Claudia was panting, she had gotten so caught up in her coding she hadn't even noticed the time until at was past 6 O’Clock.

“Hey do you still have any spots left?” She asked the man at the counter between deep breaths still slightly doubled over. 

“Kid. Breath. Look we only have three people on tonight at the moment, this isn't LA. You’ll be on about 7:30.”

“Also do you have a guitar I can borrow, mines kinda bust right now.” She looked up happily, seeing that there weren't too many people in the shop she could breath more easily, as much as she enjoyed doing this it always terrified her too. 

“Runs in late, no guitar, please at least tell me you know what songs you’re doing.” Asked the worker looking at her exasperated, after seeing her nod furiously he pointed to a guitar on the corner of the stage. “That one’s mine but you can use it if you want, I’m stuck here today so it’s no use to me.” Claudia thanked him and walked off to find a seat and watch the next two singers. 

An hour later she climbed up onto the stage already getting funny looks, she was under half the age of any of the other performers and probably the youngest person to have the guts to get up there. Grabbing the guitar from the corner she softly strummed it relieved to find it in tune. 

“Hey I’m Claudia.” She spoke to the audience hesitantly unable to stop fiddling and clearly looking uncomfortable with the eyes on her but the second she started to play she relaxed and came alive with the music. She sang a sad song to start but one of her favourites. 

_“It doesn't hurt me._

_You wanna feel how it feels?_

_You wanna know, know that it doesn't hurt me?_

_You wanna hear about the deal I'm making?_

_You be running up that hill_

_You and me be running up that hill”_

Opening her eyes she looked around the crowd to see everyone getting into her music, it was slow and easy though she enjoyed herself as it sped up. 

_“And if I only could,_

_Make a deal with God,_

_And get him to swap our places,_

_Be running up that road,_

_Be running up that hill,_

_Be running up that building,_

_If I only could, oh…”_

Finishing the song she looked up and heard the applause of the audience. Deciding she could get away with her next song she started. **STOMP STOMP CLAP. STOMP STOMP CLAP**. Quickly the entire room joined in everyone loving the old classic and she started playing the guitar once again. She kept up the lighter and faster pace for the rest of the time feeling exhilarated as she thanked the crowd and left the stage. 

“Great show tonight but I think you might have forgotten something.” She heard coming from behind her making her jump.

“Pardon.”

“My guitar, you’re still wearing it.” She turned to face the worker from earlier and then looked down to realise she had gotten so caught up she had walked straight of the stage with it still on.

“Thanks for letting me borrow it.” She said while handing it back to him. 

“Thanks for entertaining that crowd tonight,” he came back with, “Come again Wednesday and I might just let you borrow it again.” 

Still smiling as she got home she collapsed onto her mattress all thoughts of the file completely forgotten for the time being. 

* * *

Walking into school on Monday she was already looking forward to getting some answers, it was a weird feeling though she had never been this excited to go to school. She actually did work during home room, trying to catch Artie’s attention but he was actively ignoring her. After she finally accepted she wasn’t going to get what she wanted until after school she fell back into her old routines. 

Sitting against a wall at lunch she heard a set of footsteps coming towards her. 

“I saw you yesterday.” There was a youngish teacher stood above her that she didn't recognise, “You should come down to the music department at some point, you’re good.”

“Not a big fan of kumbaya music groups but thanks mate.” Claudia had learnt long ago you join a club like that it was so much harder to leave. 

“Well if you change your mind I’m Mr Maddox, I teach music.” He started to walk off leaving Claudia sitting happily on the ground with a smile on her face. 

* * *

“Okay spill, why us lot.” Claudia spoke while storming into the library desperate for answers at this point. 

“Five days I was impressed. I take it you read the file then.” Artie seemed unfazed by her attitude. 

“Yes. Make teams. Solve the unsolvable. Get people with special gifts. Train them up as kids. Awesome, but I don't see why I’m here and what about the rest of these guys, what are they gifted at apart from Myka bring gifted at being a freaking pain in everyones ass with her rules.” Claudia was getting more worked up, not only had she discovered a government program that trains groups of children but there had been various example cases in the file of unsolvable mysteries.

“Look at your computer.” Claudia did as Artie asked unsure to why, she already knew exactly what it looked like. “Okay to find a computer better than that you would have to head to the NSA or NASA and you made that one with nothing more than spare parts you found lying around. That encryption you broke in what 12 days, it took longer than that for a team of NSA hackers to get through and you are 14 years of age.” She knew most of this already and the main thought going through her head was humour about how useless the government is. “Claudia, you are probably one of the worlds greatest computer minds to date. That is your gift, as for the others that is for them to tell you.” Claudia was frozen, she had never received that much praise in her life and here she was being told she was not only good at what she did but the best. Still frozen in place the other three, who had watched the scene unfold before them, started to nudge each other as is to decide who should go first. 

“I can read people auras.” Leena had stepped forwards and spoke with an eerie calmness as if she knew the panic within Claudia’s mind and was trying to give her something to latch onto and calm herself down with, “Or colours, depends how you look at it.” She reached out and placed a hand on Claudia’s arm grounding her and bringing her back to reality. 

Pete spoke next, “I get vibes.”

“You get whats.”

“Vibes, kinda feelings when something good or bad is gona happen.” As Pete spoke he reached backwards onto the table to where Artie had placed a plate of cookie as he did every session. 

“Okay what about you then?” Claudia turned to look at Myka, “Cause you don't seem to be able to do anything due to the stick up your butt.”

Myka sighed exasperatedly, “Observation and memory, I can look at something and then recall it perfectly any time later.”

“Dude, you must not even have to study for tests, that’s awesome.”

“Well children now we have got all that sorted Claudia would you like to join as at the table today, I made peanut butter scotchies,” after a quick look at the nearly empty plate he continued, “Though if you want one before Pete gets through them all you may want to hurry.”

“Awesome so what are we learning today?” Claudia was almost bouncing in the chair as she sat down. “Espionage, code breaking, how to shot a gun?”

“Mission reports and how to write them.” Artie announced only to be met with a loud groan. 

“Dude seriously.” Pete spoke between mouthfuls of cookie, “Look it’s Claudia’s first real day, couldn't we at least do something vaguely fun.” 

Claudia took that as an invitation to join the complaining, “I mean come on dude, mission reports, I don't even know what these missions are.”

“I am well aware that you read the mission reports in the file.” Seeing that they were about to start again he quickly held up his hand to silence them, “We are doing mission reports and that is final.” As he turned to face the board Claudia relaxed and sunk slightly lower into her seat, she thought she might start to like it here. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It might slow down slightly update wise soon when I get back to school due to exams, as ever please tell me if anything needs changing, I am aware Myka is a bit off compared to the series but this is going off pilot Myka she should hopefully be more normal Myka as the series progresses.


	5. Chapter 5

It had been four days since Claudia had truly joined the program, and in those four days they had learnt to complete reports, much to Claudia and Pete’s distain and learnt proper evidence procedure, which Claudia already knew if she did stay in the program she would break at least three times a day. Today was different, they were, as Artie put it, working on there own skills however in Claudia’s case this just meant better encrypting the dark vault and improving the school system. Claudia sat at her desk with her laptop, she still was waiting for Artie to warm up to her more before she asked about getting the parts to make a better one, coding while Leena sat next to her looking between the code on the screen and the other people in the room, Claudia assumed she was looking at all of their auras and wondered what her own looked like. Myka sat on the other side of the room nose deep in some book that looked as if it should have crumbled to pieces before the bronze age. Pete though, was being taught about his vibes, Artie would place three identical cups on the floor, one with a small pea under it, and got Pete to use his vibes to pick the right one, Claudia had watched for about five minutes at the beginning and had been impressed to see him get every single one correct against all the odds. 

“Okay children gather round.” Artie called out at the end of the session, “We shall be going on a field trip.” Claudia and Pete looked at each other and groaned in sync. 

“Please not another museum Artie, there are only a certain number of mummies as guy can look at in one life time.” Moaned Pete.

“No. No museums.” Pete perked up slightly as he continued, “If you do choose to work for the government then there is a possibility you may be asked to carry or use a gun, so I felt it would be a good idea for you to all get a feel for it.”

“Artie, are you sure that this is a good idea. I mean shooting guns is dangerous and someone could get hurt.” Myka spoke quickly the worry evident in her voice, “And well not to point a finger but some people are not exactly the most mature or the best at following rules.”

As Myka paused to breath Artie cut her off, “You will not be shooting actual guns but instead we are going to a paintball course in Featherhead.” After seeing Myka start to breath again he slowed his speech slightly, “Is everyone able to get down there?” Claudia looked to the ground slightly embarrassed to have to admit she couldn’t. 

“Hey Claudia, do you want a ride?” Claudia looked up to see Leena looking expectantly at her waiting for an answer, she wasn’t sure if the other girl had read her aura or just seen her discomfort but she had offered exactly what Claudia was to afraid to ask for. 

“Sure, that would be great actually.” As she looked around she could see no one took much notice of it and allowed herself to breath more easily. 

“Alright then, we have the course for six hours starting at twelve so eat before you get there.” As Artie spoke he handed out pieces of paper with the address on it. 

After Artie dismissed them Myka and Pete headed out together while Leena stood over Claudia as she picked up her laptop and placed it in her bag. 

“So do you want me to pick you up from your house?”

“No I don't want to inconvenience you, it’s already plenty that you’re taking me down there, I’ll walk to yours, I like the fresh air anyways.” Claudia went to walk off before she realised she had no idea where Leena lived, as she moved to turn and ask a piece of paper was held out in front of her.

“Here, do you think you will be able to find your way?” Leena looked at her calmly while Claudia was in shock, she knew Leena could read auras but at this point she seemed to be closer to mind reading. 

“I’ll manage.” Claudia was still frozen in place as Leena walked past, turing back to call out.

“Be there at about nine, we’ll stop for food on the way.”

* * *

Claudia paced on the pavement outside Leena’s house, she had made sure to leave earlier than necessary to avoid being late but was now stuck thirty minutes early not wanting to intrude. She was still in the middle of an internal crisis about when was too early to got to the door when she heard her name being called, turning to look at the house she saw Leena stood in the doorway still in pyjamas waving her inside. 

“Sorry I just didn't want to be late so I might have overcompensated slightly.” She started apologising to Leena the second she got close enough. 

“Don’t worry, I half expected it.” Claudia was slowly becoming more convinced of Leena’s mind reading abilities, after quickly thinking, if anyone is reading my mind right now cough, and hearing no reply she started to look around the house. It was much larger than any foster home she had been in, almost reminding her of her family’s home or at least what she could remember of it, the hallway was filled with pictures of Leena and an older woman Claudia assumed was her mother. Following Leena she ended up in a kitchen where there was a bowl of cereal already placed on the counter half eaten, clearly left when Leena had come to fetch her. 

“Do you want some?” Leena asked watching how Claudia reacted, after she shook her head Leena tried a different tactic, “Have you had anything to eat yet today?” Watching as Claudia more hesitantly shook her head again she began to get out another bowl and spoon along with milk and three different types of cereal. “Eat some, I’ll be down in ten minutes I just have to go and get dressed.” As she walked away Claudia poured herself out a small bowl of coco pops and tried to remember the last time she had eaten a proper breakfast or even something before eleven o’Clock that had been bigger than an apple or chocolate bar she had nicked from someones kitchen. 

It took fifteen minutes for Leena to get ready, Claudia had finished her cereal after five and head spent the next ten minutes sitting at at the counter unsure what to do with herself. Leena almost laughed seeing the girl trying to pretend she didn't exist whilst playing with a few coco pops that had fallen out of her bowl before walking towards her and touching her shoulder to get her attention. Had Claudia not been so much into her own world the simple action would have been fine however it brought her back to reality so quickly that she jumped and fell off her chair and onto the floor. 

“Oh my God are you okay?” At this point Leena could no longer hold back a laugh and had to hold the counter to keep herself up and avoid joining Claudia on the floor. 

“I’m glad you finding this amusing.” The statement was said lightheartedly as Claudia slowly picked herself up, “Nest time don't try to sneak up on people.”

“I wasn’t, I made quite a bit of noise on my way over here in fact, you were just too busy playing with your food to notice.” Before the two could continue the woman Claudia had seen in the photographs walked in. 

“Ah Claudia you’re here, we may as well head out early then.” She turned and walked gracefully to he door with the two girls following close behind. 

* * *

They made it to the paintball course on time after eating lunch, which Claudia had let them pay for after some persuasion as wells as her realising she had no money and was sure to get hungry paintballing for six straight hours. Walking in Artie handed out sets of camo uniforms along with protective helmets and goggles. 

“Okay there are going to be three sections, the first is practicing and learning how to shoot the gun, then we will have a game with two teams where you have to work together and the final will be a free for all in which the team member with the smallest amount of paint will get a prize at the end.” At hearing the last of Artie’s games Claudia, Pete and Myka all looked at one another as if to try and scare the others off their prize while Leena looked exasperatedly at Artie. “Okay so if you all head outside there is an instructor out there with some targets for you to practice on.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I assume you can guess what the next chapter is going to be. Also I can either move to longer chapters with longer between updates or keep the updates close together but with chapters staying about this length, any preferences?


	6. Chapter 6

They had spent an hour learning the correct way to shoot and then just practicing on targets, both Myka and Claudia were hitting the bullseye almost every time by the end, for Claudia it was simple physic, momentum, gravity, angles while Myka just remembered what she had done all the times before and adjusted from that. Pete on the other hand had shot with guess work messing around with different ways of shooting but by the end was consistently hitting close to the middle of the target and Leena was pretty close in skill but shot with a very steady hand. 

“Okay, now it’s time to partner up.” Artie had brought them back into the first room and handed each of the a spare load of paintballs while he spoke. “We are going to have three rounds changing the pairings each time. First round Pete and Claudia vs Myka and Leena.” Claudia highfived Pete as she walked over to him already imagining the havoc they could cause together. 

After Artie had let them into the area they ran, they had five minutes before a klaxon would sound to announce the start of the game. Artie had told them that there would be various useful items dotted around the course such as more ammo and smaller hand guns, one of which Claudia spotted though didn't mention to Pete as she memorised its location. 

“Okay so if we find higher ground then we can try and get them from there.” Pete suggested looking at the hill in front of him seeing a couple of areas they could use for cover. 

“No think, Myka and Leena will be nothing but tactical. Come on Pete you know Myka better than I do, so you have to know it’s true.” Pete nodded his head in agreement before looking up and thinking. 

“Well how do we beat the most logical person in the world then Claudia?” 

“We make logic useless, we go against what we should do and be as spontaneous and sporadic as possible, they can’t guess our moves ahead of time if we don’t even know them.” Claudia smiled thinking of the best ways to cause chaos. 

“Claudia you’re a genius.”

“I know that, that’s why I’m here is it not.” Before they could start to think of ideas a large klaxon sounded causing Claudia to jump. 

“Well if we are being spontaneous I say we hunt them out, they ran in the opposite direction to us and between Myka and Leena one of them would have suggested finding a place with good cover.” The two of the started quietly moving through the woods, well as quietly as you could be in the woods. Pete spent half the time standing on branches while Claudia flinched and aimed in his direction every time he did. 

“Dude could you walk any louder.” She spoke in a harsh wiser while moving towards him. 

“Well sorry, not all of us could take ballet lessons, how are you walking so quietly anyways?”

“Years of practice.” As Claudia spoke she thought back to when she hadn't been so good at it and shuddered slightly. Suddenly Pete snapping his arm out and catching her as she walked into it he placed her finger in front of her lips and pointed, there was a small cabin in the clearing just in front of them. They stood stock still and watched for a moment when they saw slight movement through the window. Holding her hand to try and tell Pete to stay where he was she quietly moved around the cabin to look for other ways in. Getting back to Pete, who she was relieved to see had stayed where she left him, she crouched down and encouraged him to join her. 

“Okay so there is a back door to the cabin as well so if I head round back and you go in through the front we should be able to ambush them.”

“Wait, for us to win we just have to have one of us stay paint free right?” Claudia thought for a moment before nodding her head, “Well sending both of us in at the same time seems like a big risk, how about I kick down the door getting their attention and just shoot while you sneak in through the back door and hit both of them before they even notice you’re there.” She thought carefully about the plan before asking. 

“Why am I the one going in through the back? Why not you?” She was already getting nervous about how much of the plan revolved around her, they would loose if she screwed up. 

“Well first you’re the better shot Miss it’s all basic physics and secondly you are much quieter than me so it might actually work.” Pete then indicated for her to start to move round before moving himself to find a better position to start from. Claudia was glad that in the back there was only one window so after carefully skirting around the side of the house she ducked under the window before finally reaching the door, quickly checking that it was in fact not locked she stood as quietly as she could waiting for Pete to make his entrance. It only took a second before she heard the crash of a door being kicked down, trust Pete to make a big entrance she thought, quietly as she could she opened the door. As she moved through the small gap she had made she immediately saw Myka and the Leena just to the side, both frantically shooting at Pete who was at this point just stood there taking shot after shot. She quickly brought up her gun shooting Myka in the back before moving slightly to get a better shot at Leena who had started to move after seeing her team mate get shot, she however, was not quick enough as Claudia’s bullet caught her dead in the side. 

“Suck it.” Yelled Pete as he jumped up and down drenched in paint, moving over to high five Claudia who was laughing at the shocked look at the other girls faces . “We win.” The two of them were still celebrating as they all made it back to the main building. 

Artie watched on as Myka and Claudia together made quick work of Leena and Pete and then Myka and Pete beat Leena and Claudia in a nail bitting match that had taken close to an hour of the two quite evenly matched pairs to catch each other. 

* * *

Trash talk between Pete and Claudia had continued for five minutes before Artie had managed to get their attention, “Okay, so as you seem to be aware,” he looked pointedly at the two still throwing each other looks, “We are playing the free for all game, the last person to be free of paint will win the round and the prize. Same start as before, no shooting until the second klaxon sounds, the klaxon will also sound any time someone is taken out of the game.” With that he let them back outside and set them off. 

Claudia started running in the direction she and Pete had run during the first round quickly finding the small gun before running to a broken car she had seen during the second round. Shortly after she had heard the second klaxon she was content she had gathered what she needed she found a small cave in the cliff face, which worked as a border for part of the arena, and sat down starting to pull apart the smaller gun. It took her almost fifteen minutes during which time the klaxon had sounded once, getting up and carefully placing her new toy in her belt she started to silently move through the forest. Claudia decided to go past the main building so she could see who was still in play, carefully looking through the window while keeping an ear out for any of the others coming close she wasn’t unsurprised to see Leena looking back at her, what did surprise her though was to see the other girl point towards and slightly to the left of Claudia. Taking that as the direction of the other pair she started moving down the hill. 

She was over halfway down the hill when she heard the familiar sound of breaking branches coming towards her, quickly clambering up the nearest tree, with as much grace as a person carrying a large rifle could, she lay her body on the branch and brought the gun round into her hands pointing it downwards. As she waited she saw Pete moving into her eyesight, choosing to wait till he was closer and therefore an easier shot she watched, then a movement in the corner of her eye caught her attention. Myka slowly came into view and at that point Claudia realised she was stuck, if she shot Pete Myka would surely see her and shoot before she had a chance to aim and the same would happen of she shot Myka. Just as she was accepting that she was going to just have to wait for the pair to either shot one another or move on Myka slowly and quietly, though not quite as quietly as Claudia was, started moving towards Pete to guarantee a good shot. Claudia slowly moved her gun back onto her back and removing the toy she made earlier for her belt, waiting until Pete and Myka were almost completely under the tree she saw Myka’s gun start to raise to shoot the completely oblivious Pete. Quickly pulling the pin she let the homemade paint grenade drop, both of them tuned to look at it as it hit the floor with a soft thump before it exploded covering the two of them in the paint Claudia had removed from some spare ammo. 

“Yes, I win!”

“What the hell!”

What in gods name was that?” All three of them yelled at the same time, the two on the ground looked up to see where the grenade had come from to be greeted by Claudia half dancing half wriggling still lying on her tree branch. 

After Claudia removed herself from the tree the three and made it back to the main building, leaving a trail of paint as they went. Leena burst out laughing as the two paint covered kids followed Claudia in telling her to shut it as she sang “we are the champions”, Artie on the other land kept his composure as the trio walked in. 

“So what on earth happened then?” He demanded unsure to how the pair could have ended up this covered in paint. 

“Claudia she dropped this thing,” Started Pete, 

“And it exploded paint everywhere.” Myka finished for him. Artie looked over to Claudia one eyebrow raised. 

“Careful there gramps, the caterpillar above your eye may escape if you let it go too far.” Claudia tried to avoid the obvious question as although she was proud of winning she knew the consequences to not following peoples rules.

“What did you make?” Claudia looked down at the ground guiltily and murmured, “Sorry I didn't quite catch that.” Artie watched as the girl seemed more and more worried. 

“I made a paint grenade, you just said the last person to be free of paint, you never said we had to shoot the others.” Claudia’s speech increased in speed as she spoke, trying to defend herself. 

“Impressive, what was it made from?” Claudia looked up in surprise, she wasn’t used to being congratulated on her ingenuity. 

“I made a small cylinder from some metal from the broken down car and made holes in it which I plugged with dirt, I then filled it with paint and a CO2 canister from a spare handgun I found with a pin at the top to pierce it. The delay was made with some various parts from the car so after I pulled the pin I had a few seconds before the canister burst forcing the paint out of the holes and onto the two of them.” She was beaming with pride by the end of the explanation after having watched all of their faces, they had all looked at her with slight awe. “Okay story time over, what do I get.” She started bouncing like a puppy as she looked pleadingly at Artie. 

“You’ll find out next week, now all of your parents are outside so shoo.” He pointed to the door and after they had all left he went to get the recordings of the arena curious to see the construction of the device. 

* * *

It was nine when they got back to Univille, Leena had asked Claudia for her address but was instead told that she wanted to be dropped of on the high street. Getting out of the car Claudia waved goodbye to Leena before walking into the coffee shop not wanting to let go of the high she was still feeling from earlier and knowing that the applause she got from the crowd here would keep it till the end of the night. And it did, Claudia couldn't remember the last time she had gone to sleep this happy. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I own nothing, you will know if that changes as the show will magically come back, from the responses I have gotten people are happy with shorter but quicker chapters so I will keep the chapter a similar length though the updates will still slow slightly due to going back to school and exams. I am aiming to keep up at least twice a week until exams end when it should be more again.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took slightly longer than planned it was a bad week, sadly I still own nothing. Hopefully the next chapter will be out much quicker than this one.

Claudia was really starting to think today was the world trying to make up for the great day she had had yesterday by making this the worst one. First she had woken up and been unable to find her laptop after having not looked for it last night since she had gotten back so late, she had gone into the kitchen to look and see if someone moved it before spotting the remains of it on the table, it was completely smashed, screen cracked, hard disk broken open and the only clue was some thin tyre tracks on the casing. She had hoped it was just an accident, Walter ran over things all the time but after seeing the smug look on his face as he saw her she knew that it was not the case. The day had only gotten worse from there. 

* * *

Claudia had made it through two lessons already, she had sat with her feet up on the desk fiddling with some scrap metal she had in her bag carefully twisting it with pliers, she hadn't been without her computer like this since she had made it just over a year ago and didn't really know what to do with herself. The teachers weren't really sure either, they skirted around her even more than usual seemingly worried by the lack of computer on the desk in front of her and fearing what her reaction to anything may be.

By the time she sat at her desk in biology she had completed the small charm she had been forming and added it to the growing collecting on the necklace she was wearing, the one she had made was shaped like a small gun to remind herself that days could be that good. Suddenly she heard the noise of a scraping chair besides her and looked up to face a tallish boy with blue eyes and a short buzz cut. 

“Hi I’m Steve Jinks.” The boy held out his had for her to shake, she was impressed at the fact he was talking to her, since she had joined the school only a handful of people outside of the gifted group and Todd had spoken to her and most of those were never more than once. 

“Claudia.” She replied shaking his hand abet slightly hesitantly. After about five minutes of the lesson Steve turned to face her. 

“Since we are lab partners then I should ask, have you done anything towards this project yet?”

“Huh?” Claudia looked at him confused having not really been listening to the lesson, looking around she saw that each table was talking so clearly the teacher had allowed them all to discuss the project on DNA she had set for them at the beginning of the term. “Why are you my lab partner Jinksy, why did you hate your old one so much to switch for me?” Claudia was unsure to why anyone would voluntarily choose her as a partner, in fact she had spent the past few weeks making sure no one would, however while looking around she could see no one partnerless. 

“I didn’t, I started today, you were the only person without a partner. So have you done anything on the project.” Steve was watching her a little too closely for her liking. 

“Don’t worry it’s all sorted, you don't need to do anything, just stay quiet and I’ll let you sign your name at the end.” Claudia had already created a model of the sequence of the bacterium responsible for one form of the common cold and her laptop, which luckily had been saved to the cloud file she had highly encrypted. 

“Okay, can I at least know what it is.” Claudia could already tell he was going to keep going on all lesson asking questions she really couldn't be bothered to answer. Carefully so he couldn't see she pulled the device she had made a few weeks ago out of her pocket and pressed the button. All of a sudden the lights turned off, along with every computer, every phone, anything running on electricity. Then the panic started, no one could get anything to turn on and quickly the school was evacuated. It took another thirty minutes for the power in the school and on any phones to return at which point Steve walked back up to Claudia.

“Was that all you?” Steve asked having seen her be unfazed by the situation. 

“Nope, had nothing to do with this Jinksy.”

“You’re lying.” Steve shook his head and walked away. 

* * *

“I assume the little incident today had something to do with you.” That was the first thing Claudia heard when she walked into the Library. 

“Of course, some kid just wouldn't leave me alone, I had to act.” 

“Miniature EMP device?”

“Yep.” Then Pete stood up from where he was sat on the table and held his hand up for a high five which Claudia happily gave him. 

“You kid, got me out of a geometry test.” He ruffled her hair as he turned back to the table putting his arm around her shoulder and leading her over with him. 

 They were half an hour into the session when the boy from earlier walked in and looked them over. 

“I’m here to get some books, is the librarian here?” He asked giving Artie a full once over. 

“She’s back there.” Artie pointed to the front of the Library unsure to why the boy would use the almost completely ignored back entrance that they used. 

Fifteen minutes later her was back but this time with a large stack of books in his arms. 

“What are you guys doing here anyways?” He asked being unable to see a connection between a jock, a nerd, a trouble maker and a quiet girl who tried to draw very little attention. 

“Study group.” Artie replied with, it was their usual explanation.

“You’re lying.”

“Oh god not this again.” Claudia groaned. 

“Fine we are a book group.”

“Lying again.”

“A historical society.”

“Why do you keep on lying to me?”

Artie looked at him before huffing, “Fine, okay. We are a super secret government group that trains gifted kids and makes groups to solve the unsolvable problems and cases. You happy?”

“Yes, thank you.” And then Steve walked out of the Library. 

Artie turned to Claudia before asking, “Who was that?”

“Why the hell do you think I know?” Claudia started becoming defensive immediately. 

“You said, “Not this again” you met him before.” Artie tilted his head and looked at her expectantly. 

“Fine he was the one who wouldn't leave me alone earlier, his name is Steve Jinks.” 

Artie stared to walk away muttering to himself “Steve Jinks.”

* * *

It was getting close to the end of the session when Claudia started to get nervous, she wanted to ask Artie if he had been serious about the offer to give her materials to make a new computer as she had hated today and wanted to know if she was going to have to scavenge for scraps again. However with only ten minutes left Artie finished the lesson and turned from the whiteboard he was writing on. 

“Now as we all remember Claudia won yesterdays paint balling game.” Both Pete and Myka muttered quietly that it wasn’t a fair win, “And as you remember there was a prize promised. Claudia you haven't had your laptop today, did something happen to it?”

“It got,… It broke.” Claudia decided it would take too long to explain what really happened.

“Well then the prize is even better than planned, tomorrow bring in a list of the supplies you need to make a new one and I can get hold of them for you.” Claudia was grinning ear to ear already planning the schematics out in her head. If she could actually get the right parts she could make one that wouldn't overheat and could process fast enough to get past even the worst encryptions. 

She was still shaking slightly with excitement while walking out when Pete slung his arm around her shoulder. 

“Hey we’re all going to come to my house to hang for a bit, you want to join us?” Claudia looked hesitant trying to decide if it was a good idea, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to get that close to these people however she had nowhere better to be. 

“Sure, I’ll come, we heading straight there?” 

“Yep my Mum is coming, she’ll give you a lift unless you have someone already here.”

“Nope, no one here.” Claudia replied quickly following them as they headed across the almost empty car park to a large SUV getting in the back between Leena and Myka.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey so Steve's here now, you have a few more chapters before the story line is going to become more clear. A couple of chapters I said this was the longest thing I have written well I have now long surpassed that length, we're over 10K so it's probably now 4X longer than the previous longest thing I have written so yeah, go science and maths not requiring essays. Please do keep reviewing, I just like the reassurance that I am not yelling into the void and please do tell me what you think or if anything needs changing. Now I am very much rambling but all mistakes are mine do tell me if you find any.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was a bit quicker however exams start in just a few weeks so I don't know what updates will be like once we get there. I guess we will see.  
> Ironically after that I am going to say that due to exams I can't currently due the story justice, I'm too stressed and distracted so everything is coming out shit so I'll be back hopefully in a few weeks with a new chapter. But until then if anybody has anything they want to suggest, the story isn't yet set in stone, please say and do comment they always convince me to write at least a little bit. Sorry be back soon and good luck to anyone else with exams.

Claudia sat in the living room on a large cushy sofa along with Leena while Myka sat in an armchair facing towards them.

"Do you guys want anything to drink?" Pete yelled from the kitchen.

"Coke." Myka called back.

"Tea." Leena spoke much softer than the other two but still loud enough that Pete might hear. Claudia sat playing slightly with the sleeves of her jacket.

"Claudia what about you?" Pete called having not heard any response from the younger girl.

"Um, I'll take a coke if that's okay." She spoke hesitantly though she was convinced to speak by the others responding before her.

"Hey Myka can you come lend a hand with all this." Myka sighed before pulling herself up from the chair and heading through the doorway only to return seconds later arms pilled high with food.

"Pete there are four of us here, you're not trying to feed an army." Leena laughed as Pete followed shortly after with almost as much food as well as the drinks all very precariously balanced, Claudia stood up to help remove the food from his arms without it spilling while carefully taking one of the smaller packets of cookies and slipping it into her bag hoping no one noticed. When no one called her out on it she assumed she did.

"Sooo," Pete started while sitting down on a bean bag on the floor, "What do we wanna do?" He reach forwards and grabbed a slice of the cold pizza he had brought out. Myka looked straight at Claudia causing her to try and sink into the sofa as much as it would allow.

"Well I for one don't know much about are new girl over here." Claudia become more and more nervous as she spoke. "I can't speak for the others but I only know your name and reputation, you haven't exactly shared much."

"Well there's not much to share about me." Claudia tried to brush it off hoping they would change the subject soon from her.

"Well do you have any siblings." Pete chimed in, "I have a sister, though right now she's at a boarding school for the deaf, there weren't any around here." He looked down as he finished the sentence clearly missing her, Claudia flinched slightly at the line of questioning, everyone always started with family.

"No, no family to speak of." She hoped it would stop there however, from past experience, she knew it wouldn't.

"No family?" Myka started to question then suddenly the realisation drew on her, "You're the kid the Syke's took in, aren't you?"

"Does everyone know they fostered someone?" Claudia wasn't sure, it wasn't as if she exactly went around telling people and neither did the Syke's.

"Small town, that sort of thing is big news around here, though nobody really knew who it was. I guess we know now." As Claudia looked around she watched everyones reactions, both Pete and Myka wore an expression of surprise while Leena remained unfazed.

"But you don't seem like one of those," Pete started but quickly stopped with a glare from Myka. Claudia turned to face Leena.

"You knew didn't you?" Leena simply nodded her head in response. "How? Did my aura tell you that?"

"Not your aura, you. I suspected before but I was certain today." Claudia looked at her intrigued to know how she had given it away. "You know how to make teachers leave you alone, so clearly you have been to enough schools to have tested methods, you don't want to make friends incase you have to leave at a moments notice. That bag of yours, it's so large because you have everything that belongs to you but your clothes in there at any point, you probably had enough stuff stolen to learn to do that and to have little enough to do it. You have about three sets of clothing that you just reuse not because, like everyone thinks, you don't care enough to get more but you cant afford it. Yesterday you hadn't eaten breakfast and you hadn't wanted to say you had no one to drive you. And today, well today you weren't sure about coming here, probably because you are getting closer than you planned to us and you have had to leave people before and don't want to do it again. The final straw however is sitting in your bag." Claudia tensed, hoping Leena wasn't referring to what she thought she was. "You took a packet of cookies, you steal Artie's cookies all the time too, you don't have a steady three meals a day and so you take food wherever you can get it. That's how I knew." The three kids looked at Leena with awe.

"And I thought I was the observant one." Exclaimed Myka trying to figure out how she knew to look for the clues.

"People from the system all do it." Leena stated as if it were an explanation.

"Your house, all the photos were from the last few years." As Claudia spoke she thought back. "There were no baby photos. You're adopted!" Leena nodded as she received shocked looks from everyone.

"My parents died when I was a baby and Mrs F took me in when I was about ten." Leena rarely spoke of it, they had moved to Univille when she was eleven so everyone just assumed they were blood relatives.

"Well. That's enough getting to know each other I think." Pete spoke cutting through the silence, "How about some video games instead." And after profuse amounts of arguing, Pete and Claudia up for games such as COD or GTA while neither Myka nor Leena were hugely experienced at gaming, they ended up playing Mario Cart.

* * *

"Dude what the hell!" Pete yelled at Claudia after she had both gotten a blue shell while in first place and then had sent it at him in second. "You're so cheating!"

"I would do not such thing." Claudia replied, turing to face him and stick out her tongue as she crossed the finish line with a large lead. He was right however, she was cheating, it hadn't really been difficult to change the system so she could choose which prize she got and from there she easily changed the target for the shell. After Leena passed the line in third place the pair high fived, this marked their fourth win now. Pete slammed down his controller as Myka came in last and turned to point at Claudia.

"I should have known better than to play a computer game with you." Although the words were aggressive he spoke in a light hearted way showing her that he wasn't truly upset by her actions.

"Alright then, lets play something you can't hack." Myka suggested trying to find some even ground.

"What shall we play." Claudia asked looking around.

"Never have I ever." Three heads quickly turned to face Leena who had just spoken, a mixture of surprise at her for suggesting it and thought as they considered the option.

"We can't play a drinking game though." Myka looked around the group, "We all have school tomorrow and little Claudia's only what fifteen?"

"Fourteen." Claudia mumbled down to the floor just loud enough to be heard by the others.

"No drinking." Leena agreed, "Use your hands instead, each thing you have done put down a finger." All three murmured in agreement to the game under these new rules.

Pete started them off quite simply. "Never have I ever, hmmmmm. Kissed a guy." All three of the girls dropped a finger.

"Never have I ever kissed a girl." Myka countered hoping to level the playing field only to be surprised when not only Pete put down a finger but Leena too.

"What, when." Pete stammered, Leena smiled and shrugged at him.

"Never have I ever spent more than two years at a school." Claudia knew it would catch all of them and smiled as it did.

"What never?" Question Myka looking very concerned.

"Nope, haven't spent more than six months at a school since I was seven. Gone through, on average, three a year I think. One for each home bar one, didn't stay a that one long enough." Claudia honestly didn't care hugely for schools anymore anyways, by the time she was nine she had learnt all they would teach her there. Leena took her turn to break the slight tension that had formed.

"Never have I ever, had a detention."

"Oh no fair." Moaned Claudia as both her and Pete lowered a finger leaving her with only three remaining.

"Never have I ever been arrested." The three older kids laughed but then stopped as they noticed Claudia had quietly put down a finger.

"What, he was hitting a kid, what else was I going to do?" Claudia defended herself as the others thought for a moment and then nodded in what she felt was a form of acceptance.

* * *

They continued going with people just restarting when they ran out of fingers for a little over an hour before Pete's mother walked in.

"I believe it's time for everyone to leave since you all have to get to school tomorrow." Claudia looked up at the clock and was surprised to find it was nine O'Clock. Heading out with everyone else she started on her journey home wishing it was even remotely possible that this could last. Seeing her laptop as she headed into her room reminded her that it wouldn't.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Both a filler chapter and important simultaneously, not much happened but now means the characters at least know something. Stories really starting soon, the big major stuff is going to be unveiled soon probably two or three more chapters and to will all start to make more sense, please review not only does it hugely boost my confidence but it makes me write faster so there is an upside for you.

**Author's Note:**

> Other characters will start to make appearances later on


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